opportunity
by waiting for us longer; and during the night of the 3d and 4th they
had evacuated the place.

They had gained a month of time for strengthening the defenses about
Richmond, and for concentrating their forces there. Now they were ready
to fall back without testing our magnificent works and huge guns, and
lead us into the swamps of Chickahominy; where they hoped that the fever
would complete the ghastly work already commenced at Yorktown.

During the night of the evacuation, the roar of artillery exceeded
anything that had been heard before. From one end of the line to the
other the shells and shot poured into our camps, and the arches of fire
that marked the courses of the shells, with flame spouting from the
mouths of the guns, created a magnificent pyrotechnic display. But at
daylight, orderlies flew from regiment to regiment with the startling
intelligence that the beleaguered works were deserted, and with orders
to occupy them at once. Smith's division hastened to cross over the dam,
and we found ourselves in the strongholds that we had so long invested.
As the Seventy-seventh regiment passed along one of the roads leading
among the intrenchments, a sharp report like that of a pistol was heard
at the feet of those in the center of the column, and directly under the
colors. The men scattered, and a piece of old cloth was seen lying on
the ground at the point from which the report emanated. Colonel McKean,
who was very near, lifted the cloth with the point of his sword, and
discovered a torpedo carefully buried in the ground, except a nipple
which had been filled with fulminating powder, which was covered by the
old cloth. The fuse only had exploded. Had the machine itself exploded,
it must have destroyed many of our men, our colonel among them. Other
regiments were not so fortunate as we were. Very many men were killed in
the streets and intrenchments by these torpedoes, which the enemy had
planted in the street at either end of the bridges, about springs, and
near the deserted guns. They were concealed beneath the ground with
great care, the capped nipple only rising above the surface, and this,
covered by an old rag or piece of bark thrown over it, exploded at the
slightest touch. These infernal machines were only one feature of the
general plan of our enemies to carry on a war by brutal, savage and
cowardly means. The starving of prisoners at Andersonville and
Salisbury, and the wholesale butchery at